In a cellular communication system, a plurality of base stations is typically used to provide wireless communication services to mobile users within the system. Each base station will often service multiple users within a coverage region or cell associated with the base station. To allow multiple users to share a base station, a multiple access scheme is typically employed. One multiple access technique that is becoming increasingly popular is code division multiple access (CDMA). In a CDMA-based system, a plurality of substantially orthogonal codes (usually taking the form of pseudo-random noise sequences) or nearly-orthogonal codes (i.e., codes with low cross-correlations) are used to spread spectrum modulate user signals within the system. Each modulated user signal has an overlapping frequency spectrum with other modulated user signals in the system. However, because the underlying modulation codes are orthogonal (or nearly-orthogonal), each user signal is capable of being independently demodulated by performing a correlation operation on the composite signal using the appropriate code.
A mobile communication device within a CDMA-based cellular system will typically receive overlapping data-bearing signals associated with a plurality of users within the system. Some of the users may be located within a common cell as the mobile communication device and some of the users may be located in other cells. The mobile communication device is required to extract data from the composite received signal that is intended for delivery to a local user associated with the device. All signal components within the composite received signal other than the component carrying the local user data are considered interference by the mobile communication device because they interfere with the data extraction process. Various receiver architectures are in use or have been proposed for use within mobile communication devices in CDMA-based cellular systems. However, there is an ongoing need for novel receiver architectures for use in such devices.